OF-40

OF-40

M47 (105/55)

OF-40 Mk.2A

OF-40

M47 (105/55)

OF-40 Mk.2A

Italy

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.0	8.0	8.0

Class:

Medium tank

Research:135 000

Purchase:380 000

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Description

The Carro Armato OTO Melara OF-40 is a Rank V Italian medium tank with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic".

General info

Survivability and armour

Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat?

If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	73	28	43	1286	1,584	29.91	36.84
Realistic	66	26		734	830	17.07	19.3

Armaments

Main armament

The armament consists of a 105 mm main gun with a rifled, 52-calibre barrel, developed by OTO Melara exclusively for this vehicle but very similar to the M68 gun.The cannon uses NATO-standard 105 mm ammunition with APDS , HEAT, HESH and SMOKE shells. It sare the same stats of all L7 105mm guns. A ace crew can reload at 6.7 secs.

Machine guns

2x Fn mag 60-40 7.62mm, they are slow compared to American and German machine guns, often being only useful for clearing shrubs or eliminating crews from open vehicles, its speed makes it very difficult to use as anti-aircraft.

Usage in the battles

Even though it is a medium tank, its armor is very similar to a leopard 1, you mantlet can bounce or soak some apds/apdsfs shells but usually it end up damaging the cannon mouth and knocking out 1/2 crew members, the best tactic is to flank using your speed or be a sniper using the rangefinder for precision shots.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Good main gun handling; quick rotation and gun lifting
• Has a laser rangefinder, making sniping much easier
• Spaced armour in the turret allows taking some autocannon hits, the mantlet are immune to HESH, and some AP shots bounce if the turret is angled
• Quick and agile tank when upgraded

Cons:

• No stabilizer
• Vehicle grind is tedious with only the stock APDS ammunition before upgrades
• Turret, while more armoured than its German cousin Leopard 1, is quite boxy and can be spotted easily if peeking over a ridgeline or hilltop
• Only 19+1 rounds in its ready racks, any more ammo is stored next to the driver in the lightly armoured hull and can be easily set off by a penetrating hit

History

The OF-40 is an Italian main battle tank developed as a joint venture between OTO Melara and Fiat, and intended primarily for export sales. OTO Melara would develop and produce the hulls, and automotive components would be provided by Fiat (the designation of the vehicle comes from the initials of the two companies, whereas "40" refers to the planned mass of the tank). Initial design work was started by OTO Melara in 1977, with the first prototypes ready by 1980.

Superficially, the OF-40 appears very similar to versions of the German Leopard 1 with welded turrets (Leopard 1A3 & 1A4). It is not a coincidence, as Oto Melara produced the Leopard under licence, and later worked with German industries to make the Lion/Leone tank, a tropicalized version of the Leopard, in order to freely sell it in the Middle East. Germany pulled out from this development and Italian industries could not sell the Lion without German permission. So they produced this new tank called OF-40, that actually was a further evolution of the Leopard/Lion lineage. The OF-40 does use the main mechanical components already produced for the Leopard 1, which had also been produced under license by OTO Melara since 1974. The OF-40 follows the same layout of the Leopard, especially in the hull. The engine, transmission and tracks are the same and the crew and ammunition layout too. The driver is located in the front-right of the hull, with ammunition storage and NBC overpressure system located to the driver's left. The turret is located toward the middle of the tank, with the gunner and commander on the right side of the turret, and the loader on the left.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example,

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

ETC.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.